Sunday, April 15, 2018

"Clearly, baroque is
fantastic,"
Gregg Lambert
said.
He did not fully understand this expression before the project"Thinking
Baroque"
took place.
We canunderstand and interpret the baroque in two general ways: rationally, as a historical
period,and consider its formal aspects: the
chronological margins
are defined and the
masters are recognized, the principles of composition and characteristic
elements are
described and preserved with poetized society and spirit of that time.Alternatively, we can feel the
Baroque as a
transitional phenomenon,
which can
occur at any time,
and which brings all matters to its maximum:the skill, the science, the emotion, the illusion,the violence. As one of the
participating artists, Miguel Rodrigues, notably remarked, we are actually approaching
a hyper baroque era; we can witness it, it is in the abundance of information,
possibilities and technologies, in the full
blossom and fullacceptance
of any ugliness andof any beauty.His
installation,
specifically madefor "Thinking
Baroque",is an assemblage of plumbing tubes and bent
plastic:it shines with gold,it attracts
with the softness ofrich red velvet. Isn’t this a sublime ofmodernity?

Friday, April 13, 2018

The commonimpression
about the baroque is that it is an irregular, obsolete, exaggerated, and
necessarily royal, affiliated with the
inquisition,
aligned with slavery and colonialism. And here I would like to reflect a bit. Somewherein the late Renaissance, in theoccidental
world,begins the
democratization of
art,
and the Baroque,
paradoxically,madea
contributionto this. Resulting from the
reactional intention to reaffirm the power of the
church and the monarchy,Baroque
concepts seekto
communicate with popular taste,using gold, illusion, sculpture
and decoration.Hence
it brought to a
maximumscale andimpact
all forms of
art, from
architecture to
music, in
order to convencewith the magnificence of the celestialkingdom but ended up confirming the beauty and
pleasure of
earthly existence,finishing at once and for all with theremnants of Gothic
asceticism.Aiming
to convey toan illiterate population, the Baroque spread knowledge
and enlightenment;
inspired by the science and discovery of the
world,
the baroque foretold modernity.

Sunday, April 08, 2018

An artwork of
art usually gets its title after being complete or during its creation, but an
exhibition instead begins with a title. The title is the subject, thecolour
and direction of all future production; the title significantly defines the
success of the exhibition. The subject of Baroque seems like a first choice for
Braga, although, it was not an easy choice from the curatorial point of view.
Announcing "Thinking Baroque" as an open call for artists, felt a little
like a gamble, I was excited. In "Thinking Baroque" is missing "the";
which I was aiming for, as it meant for evoking the baroque way of thinking. I
was not sure what how the artists would react: will this challenge inspire some
outstanding relevant proposals or will it merely attract the repetitions of the
decorative elements of what is called the "Baroque style" or
mannerism? My gamble paid off. The artistic works presented for the exhibition
have notably little to do with historical recollection, wether it be the
narrative or the technical solution; these artworks are contemporary; but still
they are baroque. Therefore, there are so many ways of thinking Baroque; and
agglomerating this artistic intention in Braga has its charm and sense and its shock.
The shock comes from the habitual reduction of the baroque to its decorative manifestations.
The city's architecture claims its full historical rights to authentic baroque
heritage; introducing new interpretations, in the form of artworks, unfreezes
the margins of habitual perception and promises a continuity for the great
tradition. The Baroque heritage, deservingly, serves here as an aesthetic
bridge between the archaic and the modern: the stories role into vital shapes
and dance, the metal sings, the gold shines, it is not possible to compete with
this mastery with of past architects and artists; but it is possible to engage
in a dialogue.

Friday, April 06, 2018

It is almost
only the ancient cities, those witch grown without a premeditated plan, that are
able to endow the content to their aesthetic shapes: here forms, which were
born out of human intentions and which appear as mere materializations of the
spirit and of the will, represent, by their conjugation, a value that goes beyond
these intentions; and which makes them expand as an opus superer ogationis (...)
and the distances between the eras, styles, personalities and vital contents,
that have left their marks here, are as broad as nowhere else in the world, yet
are woven into unity, harmony and affinity ...

Georg Simmel
wrote those words about Rome, but they equally describe Braga so well. An art
historian far from the twentieth century mainstream art critical discussion about
the legitimacy of the artwork, about the death of art, and the pursuit of
beauty. Simmel gave a simple answer to the complex labyrinth of questions of
"what is art?" Art, like beauty, he said, is a privilege, which
resides in the capacity of distinguishing, seeing the relations and making
sense in one’s own mind, out of the multiplicity of objects, facts or
phenomena. Simmel, probably a devotee of the Romantic school, also noted, that
natural objects contain an aesthetic potential: harmony or stress of totality of
parts or of elements reveal the immediate beauty; while harmony as such does
not exist in manmade creations; only time can provide them an aesthetical
completeness. In Braga, this statement does not even need demonstration, it is
explicit and impressive.

This is an ancient
Portuguese city, with thousands of years of history, whose relics and scars are
manifest themselves on the face of the city througharchelogy
and architecture, and the city is alive, cheerful and young in spirit.
Demographically the youngest city of Portugal, Braga remembers, summons up and
celebrates all its eras, from Roman to Modern, throughout the year. While the cherishing
of the past is construct on memory and archive, where all the preceding ages,
styles and symbols are at peace with each other under the umbrella of the heritage,
the present is still unconquered, unrolling, controversial. When there are no
tensions between Roman, Gothic, Baroque, or Manueline styles, which are often
composed one over another; time is the perfect artist which erects, forgets and
mixes; the page of contemporary art is not listed yet, the discourse is being
constructed on the celebration of its difference from the past eras.

Thursday, April 05, 2018

Art Brokeragewas designed to make
buying art online safe,
easy,
and fun.The
sales staff has more than 200 years of combined expertise in the art business.They
are based in Las
Vegas and have been selling fine art since 1983 (online since 1994).The procedures for buying and
selling are
proven safe, secure,
and efficient for
transactions of
any size.Its mission is to offer a first class worldwide secondary
market place while maintaininga
complete privacy.Their job is to take the
uncertainty and risk out
of the process forcustomer.

They welcome dealers, galleries, and private
collectors to
register securely and buy or sell with us.They never share private info. Sellers set the NET secondary
market price.
The true secondary market
sets the buyers' price. There are many choices and places to sell art, however Art Brokerage
is the oldest and most experienced and trusted secondary market online.They
are owned privately and the customer privacy is important tothem.

Wednesday, April 04, 2018

It isin the hotandpromisingsummer of 2017 that ART-MAP invaded the
bi-millennial city and opened the wings in a peculiar andcreative
way ofrecalling, troughnaambitious project of visual arts, one of its most golden periods– TheBAROQUE. Answering
the challenge launched by the curator Madina Ziganshina, the
Municipality could not fail to associate and presented to Braga a large demonstration inspaces
which are
sodearing to our citizens and intriguing for visitors. The works
and the artists, despite
being so diversein
their life experiences and in ways of their creative expression, responded
thecal to THINK BAROQUE.

What pleased me about this
initiative,
was the unexpected notion
in this original
approach of
the relationship between history and art during this unique event. Involvement of sufficiently
well-known names and of
emerging artists, attracted not
only the audience directly interested in such
specific genre of
artistic intervention,
but also invited the general public, who entered for the
first time in some of
these spaces to
contact new artistic conceptions andinnovative
perspectives.
Due to
audacity and willingness, one more challenge, which
aimed for
the valorisation of
contemporary art,
the preservation and knowledge ofhistory
and monuments and in
promotion of cultural
and tourism of
our territory,
was accepted.

Friday, August 04, 2017

Gallery of the station
is actually a huge complex, recently reconstructed, consisting of 3 gallery spaces
with a separate entrance each, on the ground floor and a series of white rooms
on the first floor.

The building is prepared
to show art, it has hanging systems in the galleries, light, high ceilings,
stands. The 8 rooms of the first floor are smaller and perfect for
installations, sound installations or private projects. This establishment
offers all for experimentation.

Thursday, August 03, 2017

This museum is specialized on photography and
all connected with image. It is well known for its dense agenda, central
location and quality of the exposition conditions. The museum offers 3 ample
showrooms with rustic decoration and professional light and hanging system.
Video projection room can be provided.

Saturday, July 29, 2017

This heritage building
from the 16th century is amazingly preserved and has a function as a art gallery
in the heart of Braga.

Tiny from outside,
inside it has 3 floors of ample exhibition spaces: white walls and wooden
glossy floors, featuring all necessary condition to show any kinds ofartworks,
from paintings to installations.